Alien Caller (70 page)

Where had he
even dug up such a suit? Though of course he quickly realised he
hadn’t; his prisoner had built it for him, no doubt under terrible
duress. But none of that mattered as he knew his enemy’s metal
mountain of a suit was soon to become a trap and after that if he
was truly blessed, a coffin.

“Oh I feel
quite comfortable actually.” Dimock laughed, not as confident
perhaps as he pretended, but still sure he was in control, sure he
was going to be able to kill David in a few seconds. It was why he
hadn't shot him already. That David silently promised himself, was
going to be his last mistake as he toggled the first switch and
waited.

“So, I take it
you’ve decided against surrendering.” Of course he had. David knew
that Dimock had never intended to surrender from the very start. It
just wasn’t in his nature. What he’d wanted, all he’d wanted, was
to get David across to him so he could kill him again. It was a
trap, or actually a trap within a trap.

“Why on Earth
would I do that?”

“For the
reasons I outlined before. No hope, no escape, just capture and
death. You do know that you’re doomed.” And he was. Dimock had
foolishly believed the lies that David had told him. The lies that
he had asked the President and the United Nations Secretary General
to speak. He imagined that even now they actually wanted to capture
him. To interrogate him about his crimes. That there would even be
a trial. And most stupidly he believed that the orders David had
been so publicly given, would be obeyed. At least it would be made
to look as if they had been. They wouldn't be.

Theirs was a
game of bluff and double bluff. Dimock believed the orders were
real and that David had to obey them. And because of that he
thought the game was in his hands. He imagined that David would
therefore try to arrest him as ordered. Or at least go through the
motions of arresting him instead of blowing his ship out of space.
He imagined that David's hands were forced and that as long as he
appeared to surrender David would have to go through the motions,
and that he'd come on board and then try to kill him one on one
instead of blowing his ship up. So because of that he'd allowed him
to come on board, and in theory arrest him. As well as the feeling
of satisfaction it brought him, it gained him precious time as well
as he tried to escape.

Naturally
Dimock was planning on killing him. He didn't want to be either
killed or arrested. David knew that, and Dimock knew that he knew
it. But it didn't matter because Dimock also knew that David was
planning on killing him, orders or no orders. He guessed that David
had agreed to arrest him only so that he could kill him face to
face, and he was more or less right. He didn't realise that the
Leinians weren't all sure they could target the Mentan vessel let
alone destroy it. Dimock was simply buying himself a fight and some
time as he tried to work out a way to escape the warship's guns
that he imagined were trained on him. And his methods were always
the same. Take hostages, bargain in bad faith, kill them and
escape. For that reason David had left specific instructions that
under no condition were they to bargain for his life. If he lost,
he lost. That was it. He hoped Cyrea never found out.

In the end
though, they both knew the one thing that mattered. Only one of
them was walking away from this meeting. So they'd each planned
accordingly knowing the other was doing the same. David simply had
to hope that he'd planned better.

“I'm doomed? Or
you are?” Dimock laughed at him, trying to pretend a confidence he
didn't truly have.

“You are. You
see you forgot one thing shit head.” David was still baiting him,
and enjoying it immensely. To see Dimock frightened was pure
pleasure. And he was frightened. For the first time since David had
ever known him, there was fear in his eyes. Just a trace as he
still believed he had the advantage in his armoured suit. But that
was more than he’d ever seen before. Removing his strength had left
him weak, and while he thought he had everything in hand, the
psychological effect of it was that he felt vulnerable.

“What’s that?
The pleasure of breaking your bones and sucking the marrow out of
them while you scream? Of finding and raping your woman? Killing
your unborn child? Maybe even destroying your whole world?
Everybody you’ve ever known, ever cared for. I don’t think so.”

“No. The fact
that you’re alone. On an alien ship that you don’t understand and
can’t control. Without your normal superman strength. And you’re
facing me. A combat veteran in the peak of fitness who's going to
put a bullet in your brain.”

“I couldn’t
believe you were stupid enough to let me on board, even as badly as
you hate me. But you did and now you’re mine. Start running shit
head. This is going to hurt.” Partly it was bluff, but partly it
was true. David wanted, needed to hurt him badly. To make him hurt
as badly as he’d hurt everyone else. Just killing him wasn't
enough.

“Oh I control
it all right.” On cue his prisoner who David noticed was looking
even worse in person than he had on the video, started pushing
buttons, and a horde of the floating robots entered the room. Every
one of them was clearly armed with something that looked like a ray
gun. The same weapon that Dimock was suddenly holding in his
gauntleted hand. Naturally he'd gone big, just as David had always
known he would.

It was the
moment that David had been waiting for. To have the entirety of his
trap exposed so that he could be certain of destroying it.

“Thank you!” He
smiled broadly at Dimock, just to let him know he’d fallen into his
trap, just as he depressed the final button with his toe, praying
it would work.

The result was
everything he could have dreamed of as the massive electromagnetic
pulse ripped through the ship. It was as powerful as the Leinians'
advanced science could make it, without needing a nuclear bomb to
generate it. For which David was infinitely grateful. He didn’t
want to die, and in any case the Mentan’s ship would surely have
detected such a device. But a dormant pulse charge cannon, broken
down into its separate components though able to be reassembled
with the press of a couple of buttons, had passed through all its
sensors exactly as he’d hoped.

In the first
heartbeat, half the ship began glowing brighter than a star as the
electronics went crazy, and only the darkened visor in David’s
helmet kept him from going completely blind. Dimock he hoped,
wasn’t so lucky. Then the entire ship exploded. There was no other
way to describe it.

Everything
electrical, anything that could carry a charge, suddenly turned
into a fireworks display with sparks and flame shooting everywhere.
Bridge consuls, the floating robots, the view screens on the walls,
and the walls themselves, all turned into showers of flashes and
flame, while things started exploding all around them. Pieces of
red hot fiery metal began screaming like tracer bullets everywhere,
and whatever they hit tended to explode as well, adding to the
chaos.

David threw
himself to the deck, having guessed that this would happen, and
hoping that his own armoured suit would protect him. Dimock of
course, wasn’t so fast. His reflexes were no longer enhanced, his
strength was only human, and the bulky armour he’d chosen to wear
slowed him down even further with its newly dead servos. But most
of all he hadn’t expected it. David watched with savage joy as he
saw his ancient foe stand there gaping around like an idiot, and
then clumsily throw himself to the metal floor. It was working
perfectly.

A few seconds
later of course, everything went dead. The lights failed, the
screens went dark, and the only light in the bridge came from the
still burning instruments which were sparking wildly. The floating
robots had crashed to the deck, just before they started floating
aimlessly around the room as gravity failed, and even if their
weapons still worked, they would never be able to fire them.

Meanwhile David
was largely intact, his suit having taken a few hits, but nothing
it couldn’t deal with. Of course all its powered functions were off
line. No powered servo assists, no radio, no lights, no electronic
compass and map. But then he’d planned for that. It was why he had
had most of them removed ahead of time. To save weight. All the
suit had had to do was hold air and protect him. Even speaking and
hearing was done through the aid of a flexible membrane around the
collar. No electrics involved. Meanwhile Dimock had foolishly
counted on the enhanced speed and strength of his armour to protect
him. Things the suit no longer had.

Meanwhile the
Mentan’s ship was now officially dead. If the pulse had been as
strong as the Leinians had hoped, there wouldn’t be a single
working system on the ship after that blast. The ship was
defenceless, a drifting hulk in space, and Dimock was powerless to
destroy anyone. Except the three of them still on board. David
still had a little work to do.

He risked
looking across the room to where Dimock had been, hoping against
hope that the madman was dead. But there was no such luck. He was
gone, no doubt having taken shelter under one of the consoles, as
his ship exploded around him. It would have been too much to hope
for that he would have died that quickly or easily.

Further around
he could see the Mentan, hiding under another console, his chain no
longer taught, and David realized that Dimock had let him go in his
fear. It was probably clever. Had he held on to the chain, David
would have known where he was. But he was still going to find him.
This just made the hunt more interesting.

He reached
inside his steel sleeve for the gun Lar had given him. A 45
automatic with three spare clips that one of the party had thought
to send back home as a souvenir. He knew it would still work.
Mechanical triggers could still fire percussion caps, and the metal
of the ship was thick enough to stop the bullets holing it. Of
course ricochets were going to be a worry, but only if he missed.
And with a little luck the chances were that all the ray guns, like
the rest of the electronic equipment were now completely dead, the
pulse having wiped them out. He hoped. That had been the plan after
all.

There was only
one way to check of course. He reached for a few pieces of still
glowing shrapnel that had landed near him, picked them up in his
steel gauntleted hand, and threw them in the general direction of
where Dimock had been. It was an old ruse, but one that he hoped
would do the trick. Especially if Dimock was still partially blind
and deaf from the explosions, not to mention frightened both from
having no more super strength and no ray guns.

It worked
almost exactly as he’d hoped for, as no rays blasted anything, and
then he heard Dimock start creeping towards the sound, no doubt
with his hopefully useless ray gun firmly in hand. He could just
see the very top of his head barely inching above one of the
instrument panels. It was foolish of him not to keep lower, but
David instantly forgave him his mistake. It was all he’d ever
wanted.

“Yes!” He
didn’t let the word leave his lips, he was far too well trained for
that, but had he the choice he would have screamed it to the
heavens above for their blessing.

Silent as a
ghost, David rose all the way to his feet, aimed and squeezed the
trigger. Even as the bullet was leaving the barrel, he knew it was
a good shot, and he watched with transcendent joy as blood
spattered in the air as the bullet ripped through Dimock’s titanium
helmet. It should. He'd expected Dimock to be wearing armour and
prepared accordingly. The armour piercing bullet had torn a rut
through the metal as if it was just dirt being ploughed, and grazed
his enemy’s skull, sending a spray of blood into the air and on to
the steel walls behind him. It was a wonderful sight, and he knew
Dimock would be reeling from the blow, possibly even already on the
floor unconscious. But that didn’t stop him doing the rest of his
job as he’d been taught so long ago. Always make sure of the
kill.

Screaming like
a wild man, still squeezing the trigger as quickly as he could, he
sprinted towards his target, with every step getting a better and
better angle on him. Then he hurdled the console between them like
an Olympic athlete, and pumped another half dozen slugs into
Dimock’s body below him, even as he sailed right over him. He
didn’t need powered servo’s with so much adrenaline pumping through
him. Besides with the artificial gravity off all that had held him
to the floor were the magnetic boots.

Each shot
brought another splash of red to the back of his enemy, and with a
savage joy David knew he was finally hurting the monster. He could
see the blood pouring out of his wounds, welling up through the
titanium skin of his suit. Both kidneys and the centre of his back
were craters, while the back of his head had taken a slice off the
top. More bullets had lodged in his shoulders, and the right one
was a mass of blood and gore. Dimock’s armour had been no match for
the Teflon coated, depleted uranium, armour piercing bullets he’d
had the Leinians prepare for him.

Finally he
sailed too far past Dimock to keep shooting and he hated it. But
still the gun was empty, and he knew that all eighteen bullets had
been fired and over half of them were still lodged in his enemy’s
back. It was a good day. Automatically he ejected the empty over
sized clip and slotted the next one in, before he walked down the
wall and then across the floor, back to his enemy. But things
weren't as they should be.